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Hello to all,
new to Dockwalk and brainpicking!
Am setting up a company in the Aeolian Islands to offer onshore services to yachts...so i need input as to what are the major services needed and what are the main problems you encounter!
Thanks,
William

Hmm ......Aeolian Islands. Start with Lipari and sink some mooring buoys for 25 meter boats south of Marina Corta on the ten meter ledge. That anchporage Gets messy in summer with little charter boat banging into you at night or my crew hauling bare boat charter guests back to their rig as it blows downwind to Messina when their anchor breaks the ten meter ledge and falls off the continental shelf. . . Also run a tender service for your mooring buoys...impossible to tie a tender ashore in Lipari. Do the same for everyone of the Aeolians...very difficult to use the islands wind against current, foul holding an no safe tender space ashore. Very hard for me to get the guests ashore for lunch. Charge good money for your services the Aeolians are beautiful.

Thanks junior.
Unfortunately what you propose isn't possible due to various local problems! At least for now.
What i really intended, although you input for a shuttle service is interesting, is also the sort of service missing to captains and guests which they can't organise themselves, and therefore need specialised local assistance.
William

Sorry, cant help you. For years Ive used Sicilian crew. They take us by the hand and guide us thru the miles and miles of offfshore long lines at night, then put on a good show when we visit their world. A multi lingual tour guide could be useful for many. And as I said tender dockage is so bad that I haven't personally set foot on land in years.....a nightmare.

Thanks junior.
Unfortunately what you propose isn't possible due to various local problems! At least for now.
What i really intended, although you input for a shuttle service is interesting, is also the sort of service missing to captains and guests which they can't organise themselves, and therefore need specialised local assistance.
William

He just told you why he won't need any of those services. It is completely irrelevant to offer any services ashore if he cannot safely keep his boat in, and get his guests to, your shore.

What YOU need to do first as prep work is to organize your community to make thing happen, not wait for someone to just bring you something. We don't want to hear about your local problems, you're local, work it out, pay who you have to, kill who you can. You have to build infrastructure for the industry to use if you want the industry to come to you. Putting in moorings is not a great hardship, providing facilities for for the transport of people to the shore, how much more rudimentary of a prerequisite do you want to be able to provide 'shore side services'? You need to look to your own community and then make things happen.

Id be careful offering criticism. A lease for Waterfront usage....public property.... in many Mediterranean countries requires Federal, Regional and local consent. Very complex and the prize is so great that winners are always Political connections in conjunction with organized crime. Very difficult for a little guy to be the winner. Mooring fields are beautiful. As you know the harbour of Lipari was ruined when that floating dock marina was added and turned the SW corner from a beautiful beach into a parking lot. I wonder what Politician owns that waterfront lease ?
I notice that in Croatia mooring fields are common because the public property stays public and locals, who have no desire to pollute their port, can keep a substantial portion of the revenue generated from the public property moorings . As soon as a field is sunk the port becomes a recommended and popular destination for charter boats. The local restaurant, hardware store, grocery store....benefit greatly, jobs are made. If you feel Masochistic and want to give it a go recruit a well connected environmentalist then appeal on the environmental angle. Anchors and chains destroy the bottom ecology.